Harry Houdini
By: Gideon Kemper
Biography
Harry Houdini, born Erich Weisz in Budapest, Hungary was a renowned magician across the United States, but not just for his magic, but more for his escapes. Houdini was a master of lock picking. holding his breath, and ultimately being superhuman. Though his career started small with handcuffs, he kept reaching higher and higher. at one point, he was strip searched by some officers and put into a jail cell, and escaped it as part of his act. His career reached its peak when he mastered the Chinese water torture chamber, where he was chained up from head to foot, dropped upside down into a glass chamber of water, and locked inside. This required him to hold his breath for more than three minutes while escaping the numerous restraints. Houdini, however, met his end due to appendicitis, or a ruptured appendix. the cause of this ruptured appendix however is questioned. Some say it was ruptured when he was punched in the stomach (with his permission) in order to test his strength, or whether it was the poison given to him by a crowd of spiritualists (he advocated against there being any sort of spiritualism, and that all mediums were charlatans).
one of Houdini's famed chain traps
A circus poster
yet another chain restraint escape
Harry Houdini - Straight Jacket Escape